Love the Smurfs as much as we do?

Did you hear about the new Smurf Halloween movie? It’s called “The Smurfs: The Legend of Smurfy Hollow.” Obviously it is a takeoff on the Legend of Sleepy Hollow, a perennial Halloween Favorite that has also been done by Disney and many other companies.

One of the interesting things about the movie is that it is not all the old cartoon style but rather part new CGI and part animation. It also has the voices from the new movies.

The movie is short at only 22 minutes, but that is typical for this type of holiday special. At only $5 for the DVD on Amazon, that isn’t too bad.

Here’s the official description and the video trailer follows:

“When Brainy Smurf is favored to win the annual Smurfberry Hunt for the ninth year in a row, Gutsy Smurf sets out to discover how Brainy wins every year. Gutsy’s investigation takes him into spooky Smurfy Hollow-and right into Gargamel’s trap! Can Brainy and Gutsy, with the help of Smurfette, put aside their rivalry before Gargamel captures them-or worse, they come face-to-face with the legendary ghost, the Headless Horseman? Featuring the voice talents of Hank Azaria (Gargamel), Alan Cumming (Gutsy), Fred Armisen (Brainy) and Anton Yelchin (Clumsy), who all reprise their roles from the film, The Smurfs.”

Although the Smurf Movie is not set to be released until August 3, 2011, Sony has released a new trailer that shows much better how the animated Smurfs are going to be integrated into the live action film.

From the trailer we can see that the Smurfs arrive in New York from Belgium and end up with Neil Patrick Harris somehow. The Smurfs themselves look pretty much the exact same as they did in the cartoons except with celebrity voices. It should be noted that the movie will be in 3-D.

Check out the new trailer below. What do you think? A great way to introduce a new generation to a beloved set of characters or a rip-off repeat that should have been left alone?

The Smurfs Christmas Special initially aired on television in 1982. You can still catch it sometimes on the Cartoon Network. Interestingly, it is unavailable for purchase on Amazon now because of “licensing agreements.” So you will have to scope it out on television and record it if you want a copy. If you are too impatient for that, here are the Youtube videos of Part 1 and Part 2:

Everyone always asks why Smurfette is the only female Smurf. The answer is that all of the Smurfs were initially males. However, when Gargamel was trying to figure out how to get to the Smurfs, he decided that he would get to them through their hearts by creating a female Smurf. Gargamel fashioned Smurfette out of sugar and spice (but nothing nice), crocodile tears, half a pack of lies, the chatter of a magpie, and a heart of stone.

Smurfette was found in the woods crying and was readily taken in by the village. Interestingly, she was not the beautiful blonde Smurfette that we all think of; she started with stringy black hair. Eventually Smurfette started turning the Smurfs against each other until they saved her life. Smurfette repents and Papa Smurf casts a spell on her to make her “new and improved” (which is blonde and full Smurf).

In the videos below, you can see the actual Smurf episode where Smurfette was created. Smurfette has some really great (and probably inappropriate in retrospect) lines in this first episode. My favorite part is when Smurfette says “Do you like what you see? You will!”

(In future posts, we will actually tell you about two other female Smurfs that you may not know about!)

I came across a cute video today that shows how to draw a Smurf. There were quite a few different ones, some specific for Smurfette or Papa Smurf. This one is just a basic Smurf. What I liked about it was that it was long enough to give a little bit of detail.

It isn’t very long, but we have finally seen the first Smurf Movie trailer. We don’t get to hear any of the voices or even really see what it is going to be about, but we can at least see a little bit of how the Smurfs are going to be portrayed in a live-action film.